A hockey fan has built a giant Winnipeg Jets-themed snow sculpture in his yard in Selkirk to show community support for the team.
Every year since 2007 Gord Amirault has made snow sculptures at his house on Reid Avenue as well as his sister’s house. Amirault and his kids come up with a new theme for the sculptures every year, with this year’s focus on the Jets.
“I usually get some pretty positive reactions to most of the sculptures, and I think it’s mostly just because of the timing, because you’re in the humdrums of winter by this time,” Amirault said. “A lot of people are looking for anything to talk about other than how cold it is or how much snow they got.”
This year’s structure features a hockey skate, helmet, Stanley Cup, Jets’ logo and a couple of encouraging messages (“Good luck” and “Let’s go Jets”).
“I don’t want them to have any pressure to win, but I want them to just enjoy this moment of their life where they have an opportunity as a really great team to achieve their goals,” Amirault said.
The way the Jets are playing this year, particularly their cohesiveness, has really stood out to Amirault. He was reminded of the impact of support from a team’s community after listening to a podcast that featured Wayne Gretzky.
“He was talking about back when he played with Edmonton how much he enjoyed the community support that they felt when they were a team when they were running for the [Stanley] Cup,” Amirault said.
Amirault, a firefighter with the City of Winnipeg, said building the sculptures each year allows him to burn off energy, get outside and enjoy the weather. This year, it took Amirault about a week to make the snow block and another five days to carve it. After running out of snow from his yard, Amirault brought snow over from Little Lake Park using his snowmobile.
The sculpture’s main block is eight feet wide, eight feet deep and eight feet tall, plus there’s an additional block that’s four feet wide, four feet deep and eight feet tall, though with the warm weather, the sculpture lost a couple feet of height. Amirault also included a couple of wooden supports up the centre to keep the structure straight.
“Some people like to do crossword puzzles or things like that,” Amirault said. “Sculptures are like a puzzle for me.”
When Amirault was young, he liked to draw but would get frustrated because he couldn’t draw in 3D, which would be more realistic. So he got into sculptures.
His parents bought him an exacto knife, and eventually, he started to focus on woodcarvings, which he still does today. One year while he was at Festival du Voyageur, he was inspired by the snow sculptures he saw there and thought he’d try to do one himself.
For each snow sculpture, after he and his kids choose the theme, he’ll create preliminary drawings to help guide his carving.
“There’s a point in time when you’re carving it, where all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I hope this turns into something that someone is going to recognize,’ and then you pull it back, and I think that’s the rewarding aspect of it — pulling it into something that’s recognizable,” Amirault said. “I don’t really look at it as artwork. I just kind of look at it as something that’s positive that the community can look at.”
While he doesn’t necessarily think of his sculptures as pieces of art, he does recognize that public creations like this allow art to be more accessible to the community.
“I think that sometimes people get wrapped up with art and only a few select people get to really appreciate great arts,” Amirault said. “This is something here that can only truly be appreciated by people who come to appreciate it. Nobody can own it. Eventually, in a couple of months, it’s going to be completely gone.”
Amirault encourages people to stop by the sculpture to take photos and show their support for the Jets, as long as they are respectful to the property and are careful.
